Communism Turns 100: New at Reason

The 100th anniversary of the Communist revolution in Russia is nothing to celebrate.

John Stossel writes:

This year marks the hundredth anniversary of one of the worst mistakes ever made: the Communist revolution in Russia.

Communist regimes went on to kill about 100 million people. Most died in famines after socialist tyrants forced people to practice inefficient collective farming. Millions of others were executed in political purges.

Yet when the Russian Revolution happened, people both inside and outside Russia were excited. Crowds cheered Lenin. No longer would nobles rule; no longer would capitalists exploit workers. Now the people would prosper together.

British journalist Theodore Rothstein wrote, “The undivided sway of the Imperialist nightmare is at an end… (there will be) rule of the labouring classes.”

But you can’t have government plan every aspect of people’s lives and expect things to go well. Instead, you get bureaucratic planning commissions and secret police.

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